Universally applicable foot traction appliance



Feb. 13, 1951 w.' M. BASSICHIS UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE FOOT TRACTION APPLIANCE Filed July 29, 1947 INVEN TOR. lV/ZZ/AM M BASS/CHAS fig? A ORA/75 Patented Feb. 13, 195l UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,541,738 UNIVERSALLY APPLICABLE Fool TRACTION APPLIANCE William M. Bassi chis Cleveland, Ohio Application July 29, 1947, SerialNo. 764,347

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1 Claim.

The present invention relates generally to'footwear and is more particularly concerned with a novel device for covering a portion of a human foot and underlying the ball thereof to aiford substantial traction on slippery and wetsurfaces.

Many serious injuries have resulted from falls in bathtubs and shower rooms, around swimming pools and at beaches on wet planks and moss covered rocks. Shces and sandals or a variety of designs and materials have been devised in numerous eiTo-rts to overcome these hazards, and while some of these devices have realized limited use, they have not been generally accepted for several reasons. In the first place, they burden andimpair the swimmer and interfere with bathing and washing. Furthermore, they have always been comparatively ex ensive. Mats of rubber or similar material have been developed in eiiorts to overcome the hazards of slippery vitreous enamel surfaces of bathtubs, but are obviously impractical for general beach and swimming pool use where relatively large areas are involved and the expense of providing mats for all dangerous. surfaces would be prohibitive. However, because of the difficulty and expense of cleaning these mats and maintaining them sterile, coupled with their tendency to retain moisture and present an unpleasant appearance and feel, they have never come into wide use.

Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide practical and economical means fully answering the longstanding and presently urgent demand for overcoming the hazards of the aforementioned wet and slippery surfaces.

It is a further object of my invention to provide means meeting this demand which can be readily placed upon and removed from a human foot, but which will tenaciously cling in a normal desired position on the foot.

It is a further object of my invention to provide means to protect the wearer against the aforementioned hazards as long as he is on wet and slippery surfaces.

It is a still further object of my invention to increase the wet surface gripping characteristics of sponge rubber or other similar material employed in making the articles of this invention by forming the said material in a practical manner.

An additional object is to provide the foregoing means at a cost sufliciently small that the means may be discarded after each use, thus eliminating the possibility of disease transference by said means.

Further advantages of the articles of my in- 2 vention include extremelylight weight, and substantial protection for the foot against sharp edges or abrasive surfaces.

A better understanding of this invention will be gained upon reference to the following detailed description and'the drawings accompanyingand forming a part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a view of an article embodying this invention positioned on a human foot in a preferred manner;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of an article embodying this invention in another form; and

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken through the mid-row of holes in Fig. 2 and illustrating the construction and constituency of the latter article.

The illustrated articles are hollow, relatively short, flattened, open-ended cylinders it having a plurality of apertures H disposed in rows extending entirely around the cylinders in aligned parallel relation. The cylinders are dimensioned to engage the foot and tenaciously adhere thereto as long as the wearer desires, and preferably are made in two or more inside diameters to accommodate a wide range of foot sizes. The inside diameters of the articles will vary, with variations in the extent of foot protection desired and in the elasticity of the material of which the article is composed. The Wall thickness of the material and the compressibility thereof are such as to support the toes of the wearer in elevated relation to the floor in order to minimize the hazard of infection.

The article illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 differs primarily from that of Fig. l in that it is composed of two different materials, an outer por-- tion or case i2 which is preferably of sponge or foam rubber having a relatively high cceflicient of friction on wet slippery surfaces, and an inner portion or lining i3 which is substantially harder and more rigid than case l2, but preferably of rubber-like substance.

The substantial traction and stability afforded a wearer of the illustrated articles on wet and. slippery surfaces is due in large part to the presence of the apertures in the articles. The wearers foot cooperates with the walls of the apertures to define a plurality of vacuum cups which are particularly effective in preventing relative motion of the articles on a surface when said surface is wet and relatively smooth. Preferably even without the aperture the articles of this invention should have substantially greater friction coeificient on wet and slippery surfaces than the skin of a human foot.

The illustrated articles may be produced by molding techniques, the Fig. 2 article preferably being molded in two parts, i. e. case l2 and lining I3. These parts are fitted together with their apertures all in register and are bonded by means of rubber cement or the like between opposing surfaces of the case and lining, or may be made as a homogeneous structure.

The device as indicated in Fig. 1 may be defined as a wide thick rubber band designed to be slipped onto the fore portion of the foot until the ball thereof is engaged and substantially covered thereby. Obviously the yieldability of the band must be of a character which will afford securement thereof without stopping circulation. By virtue of the fact that the apertures are provided substantially around the entire circumference of the article, the placing of-the article on the foot does not require that any particular position be selected for the article before the foot is inserted therein.

Having thus described the invention so that others skilled in the art may be able to understand and practice the same, I state that what I desire to secure by Letter Patent is defined in 25 1 084 what is claimed.

What is claimed is:

An anti-slip device to be placed over the foot comprising a normally tubular member formed of sponge rubber, said member having a length to cover the ball area of a wearers foot and having in its relaxed position a substantially uniform diameter along its length and having a substantially uniform Wall thickness, said device having a substantially uniformly distributed array of apertures, said apertures and the inherent resiliency of the sponge rubber structure of the body of said device permitting said device to yieldingly accommodate the vertical dimension of the human foot regardless of the initial juxtaposition of the device and of such foot.

WILLIAM M. BASSICHIS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 982,664 Fischer Jan. 24, 1911 Otis Jan. 20, 1914 1,973,292 Littell et al. Sept. 11, 1934 2,075,229 Rose Mar. 30, 1937 

